An examination method using a capsule medical apparatus is known as a technique for checking the health condition of a subject (patient). According to this method, a subject swallows a medical device formed like a capsule to non-invasively examine for hematological or gastric disorders or other diseases in the body cavity with the medical device. This allows the health condition to be checked easily. Such a capsule medical apparatus is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei-5-200015. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei-5-200015 discloses a medical capsule apparatus that includes an absorption channel for absorbing a body fluid into the capsule main body, a body-fluid collecting unit for collecting the body fluid absorbed into the capsule main body, a body-fluid testing unit for examining the collected body fluid, and a transmission unit for transmitting outside the body the examination result from the body-fluid testing unit.
This medical capsule apparatus (hereinafter, abbreviated just as the capsule) is advanced (or propelled) to an examination site in the body cavity and absorbs a body fluid into the capsule through the absorption channel by driving a micropump at the time of examination to detect the presence of blood in the body fluid using a blood sensor. When not carrying out examination, this blood sensor and the absorption channel are supplied with normal saline reserved in the capsule. This prevents a body fluid from being sensed by the blood sensor before the capsule reaches a predetermined examination site in the body cavity and increases the detection accuracy of in-vivo information when a plurality of sites are to be examined.
However, since the above-described capsule is constructed so as to detect in-vivo information at different examination sites while moving in the body cavity, the known capsule needs to supply normal saline to wash all fluid channels in the capsule each time an examination is conducted at a different examination site. Furthermore, with the known capsule, it is not possible to examine a plurality of different sites in the body cavity substantially at the same time. For this reason, it is necessary to insert a plurality of capsules into the body cavity to examine a plurality of sites at the same time.